A Life Unlived
by Industrial Lace and Magic
Summary: After a jutsu gone wrong, Naruto wakes up in a Konoha that isn't his where the Yondaime is alive and he has a family.
1. Chapter 1

**A L**ife** U**nlived- **I**ndustrial** L**ace &** M**agic

_Hi, so this is my first fic on here. It is a Yondaime/Naruto family fic. There are some other pairings in here, both Yaoi and Het. I don't want to give anything away, but I need to credit Reaper Nanashi for the idea which came from her fic 'Vis a Vis: Side Doors' although it has been slightly altered._

_I want to express great thanks to my best friend and beta Ravencaller, who not only checked and edited this for, but also typed some of it up as we were breaking from writing our collab fic. _

_Anyway, read review, enjoy! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or its characters. They belong to the master, Masashi Kishimoto. NOTE: This is the only disclaimer I will be putting up for this story!_

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Chapter 1

_**N**__aruto POV_

He'd left a few hours ago, said it was time he hit the bar, met some women. I, though, remained here, in this same spot, flashing through series after series of hand signs, determined to make this stupid jutsu work. Some say my determination is stupid, almost suicidal, that I do it to get attention. Some people wonder why I stay out here so late, alone. But what they fail to remember is that when I return home, I'm still alone. At least out here, I have something to focus on.

After something like my 1000th try, I could still only get the dirt to jump a few feet off the ground. It was simple really. Mould my chakra into my feet and force it into the ground, form eight hand signs and the ground should lift to form a shield. It was kind of like what Gaara could do with his sand.

Getting agitated, I gathered as much chakra as possible and pushed it into the ground. The result wasn't quite what I had expected. Dirt flew everywhere in a massive explosion. For a moment, everything was black, then it cleared and I could see the training grounds clearly again. I looked down and saw I was standing in a massive hole.

Stars danced in front of my eyes and I somehow ended up on the ground. A yellow blob appeared above me, I could hear a worried voice in the distance somewhere. Then, everything went black.

* * *

When I woke up, I wasn't lying on the ground, nor was I in the hospital, where I sometimes ended up after training until I passed out. Instead, I was in a bed, a very large and comfortable bed. So this definately wasn't my apartment.

Opening my eyes, I tried to keep my chakra levels as low as possible, so I didn't alert the person whose house I was in that I was awake. When I opened my eyes, I saw I was in a large bedroom. The walls were blue and orange. It looked like how I'd do my bedroom if my apartment wasn't all one room and I had the time to decorate. I didn't recognise where I was at all.

Sighing, I turned my head to the side and had to stifle a scream when I saw someone lying on the bed next to me. What the hell?! Trying to move without shaking the bed and waking the man, I sat up and looked around the room, trying to find some sort of weapon.

I climbed out of bed and pulled a sword off of the wall. The man woke up at the sound of the sword being drawn. He looked around, instantly alert. This man must be a ninja. He turned to me and looked at me with shocked eyes; I stared back with the same expression.

The man before me had blonde messy hair, all sticking up in different directions, and vivid blue eyes. I'd seen this man before. His photo hung on the wall in the Hokage's office. This couldn't be right though; the Yondaime was dead. How could he be alive? Was I dreaming, or dead? Maybe a Gen-jutsu, yeah that must be it. I was caught in a Gen-jutsu.

It was probably an attacker who wanted to throw me off. I let killer intent flow from myself and gathered up some chakra.

"Release the jutsu," I warned, my voice barely louder than a whisper. "How dare you impersonate him, my hero."

"Naruto, what's wrong, don't you remember me?" the impersonator asked. I didn't take any notice of the hurt in his voice. He was just trying to distract me.

"Of course I remember the Yondaime. But he was killed when he sealed the Kyuubi into me," I all but shouted. The Yondaime impersonator paled. He'd seen the flaw in his disguise. I thought everyone knew of the Yondaime's death.

"Son, what's wrong? Who's Kyuubi?" This time, I paled. What did he mean by son? Was I…?

"I'm your son?" I asked. The Yondaime nodded and everything once again started to turn black. My knees buckled and I was falling. But instead of hitting the ground, something caught me, and I was held against something warm that smelt of trees and ramen. Eventually, I lost consciousness.

* * *

I awoke to the sound of dripping. I knew this wasn't anywhere in Konoha; I was back with Kyuubi. When I called his name, though, I got no answer. Instead, all that greeted me was silence, apart from the dripping of water.

I ran down the side of the sewer, towards the cage I knew should be there. It was, but inside, I could see no fox. I looked at the gate. The seal was still there. So where was that damned furball?

I looked around, hoping in vain that I'd maybe find him somewhere else. I knew I wouldn't; the seal was still intact so the fox was unable to escape. That still didn't tell me where he was though.

I'd come to realise that this wasn't a Gen-jutsu. That wouldn't have been able to affect the fox like this, it was impossible. This was something far beyond that, something that I couldn't understand. Shocking really, the 'dobe' can't understand something. People don't realise I'm actually smarter than I pretend to be.

I knew what I had to do: pretend that I knew what was going on, live with the Yondaime as his son. I doubted I could put this down to an enemy, something was wrong about the situation. Send me somewhere where there would be someone to protect me? All I knew was, I'd have to stay here until I could figure out what was going on and how I could get home.

I closed my eyes and focused on waking up. It was usually the fox that did it, but since he was currently unavailable, I was forced to do it myself. If I stayed stuck in my mind, it would be hard to get home again.

* * *

When I opened my eyes again, I was in the bed I woken up in earlier. This time when I looked beside me, the Yondaime wasn't there. I breathed a small sigh of relief and got out of bed. When I looked in the drawers, I found that I still wore my trademark orange and black jacket here, but my pants were black instead of orange.

I showered quickly and dressed in some fresh clothes, then decided to explore. The house was big, but what was to be expected for the Hokage? He was the most important person in the village. Eventually I found myself in the kitchen. On my way around the house, I'd found many maids around the place. All of them bowed to me, something I'd found quite unsettling, before turning back to their job at hand.

When in the kitchen, I'd explored every room in the house and had not found the Yondaime… my dad… anywhere. On the kitchen counter, though, was a note. It told me he had gone out for a bit to get some food, and he should be back soon.

Deciding I had nothing better to do, I went to one of the studies I'd seen earlier and picked up a book on wind jutsu and sat down behind the desk to start reading. I read for a few minutes before I felt a shift in the amount of chakra in the house, signalling someone had just teleported into the house. For a moment, I panicked, thinking it was an intruder, then I heard my dad's voice call out to me.

"Naruto, I'm home and I have take out!"

I got up and headed down to the kitchen where my dad was putting take out ramen into two bowls. I smiled at the sight of my favourite food and sat down in front of one of the bowls. "Itadakimasu," I muttered before splitting my chopsticks and starting to eat. When I looked up a few seconds later, I found my dad staring at me rather than eating.

"Naruto," he said, "Is something wrong? Today, you didn't even recognise me, not as your father anyway." I stayed silent for a moment, trying to think up an answer that could explain what was happening without seeming suspicious. "Well," I started, "It was it probably just my brain being a bit slow after waking up from whatever had happened earlier."

My dad stared at me. His face was completely unreadable. I returned my attention back to my food and ate as quickly as possible so I could get away. Outside, the sky was starting to turn dark. I could give the excuse I was tired and go to bed.

I stood up and told the Yondaime I was going to bed. He gave me a small nod and I left the room to disappear back to my bedroom. I didn't think I'd be able to sleep, but after I'd stripped down to my boxers and climbed under the duvet, I was asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.

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	2. Chapter 2

_Hello everyone._

_First off, I want to thank my two reviewers and all those that put this story on their alerts and favourites. _

_I'm really sorry about the delay, but I'm a terrible updater at best and those of you that have seen my profile should know the data peg story. This chapter was really hard for me to write, but I don't know why. _

_Here is a little Christmas present for you all, so Merry Christmas. I promise to try to update faster, and am already starting the next chapter. _

_Read, enjoy, review if you want. Not gonna force you, but it would make me happy. So, have a great New Year and have fun, _

_Industrial Lace & Magic._

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_Yondaime _

What was going on with Naruto? Ever since he'd woken up, he's been acting strange, and all this nonsense about Kyuubi, I don't know what's happened to him. Before he passed out at the training grounds, he was this arrogant little boy and now he'd gotten so quiet… it doesn't make any sense. What happened at the training grounds?

After thinking on it for a while and finding no logical explanation – other than him travelling here from sort of alternate universe, which was ridiculous, even for a ninja- I sighed and went upstairs to bed, checking in on Naruto on the way.

The next morning, I didn't wake up slowly like I usually did when I had time off. I was woken rather suddenly by a loud scream coming from my son's bedroom.

My blood ran cold as I picked up a few kunai and ran to his bedroom, throwing open the door, prepared to throw the knives.

I froze though when I saw no enemy standing in my son's room, only a boy of about one year old standing on Naruto's bed. On closer inspection, I found it _was_ Naruto. He looked at me, confusion etched onto every inch of his face.

"What happened to me?" he asked – rather yelled – so it seemed he was only a one year old in body. He was in no way different to the hot headed sixteen year old I knew.

I went over to him, lifting him off the bed, and balancing him on my hip as I went downstairs. After putting him back down onto the sofa, I went back up to his bedroom and picked out a black t-shirt and a pair of shorts, placing a shrinking jutsu on them.

I was going to need to call Rin; she can tell me what to do. Why was my son one year old again, what had happened? What if this was an enemy attack? Try to make my son vulnerable and easy to attack. I pushed down all panic. Everyone knew better than to go after my family. They knew it was a hell of a lot less dangerous to confront me directly.

I went back downstairs and dressed Naruto in the shrunken clothes, using a hand towel to create a makeshift nappy – which Naruto didn't seem to be very happy about.

"Naruto, we don't know what control you have over your body. Better safe than sorry," I told him. Naruto made a face of disgust and sat up, since I had now finished pulling on the shorts.

Crossing his arms over his chest, he turned away from me. I could still see the pout to his lips. I laughed before biting down on my finger and summoning one of Gamabunta's fledglings.

"Go find Hanano Rin," I told it, "And bring her here, tell her something odd has happened to Naruto."

I sat back down on the sofa, and seeing Naruto was still pouting, I picked him up and sat him on my lap. After squirming about in what I could only call mock protest, he settled down and started sucking on his thumb. He'd never had this habit when he was one year old the first time. If we couldn't find any way to reverse this, I was going to have to buy him some dummies.

I absently started stroking his hair and watched as his eyelids grew heavier and started to droop. A knock on the door brought him back to full awareness and he jumped. Through his t-shirt, I could feel him little heart fluttering wildly.

I picked Naruto up – balancing him on my hip – and went to the door. I opened it up to see my old team standing in front of me.

* * *

_Naruto_

I knew the people standing in front of me: one because I saw him nearly everyday and the other two because I'd been told by the first.

The first was Kakashi-sensei; the other two were his old team mates Hanano Rin and Uchiha Obito. Obviously, I'd only seen the latter two in pictures, and they were never any older than fifteen years old at the most.

I held on to my father a little tighter and snuggled into the space where his neck and shoulder met.

The deep vibrations of his voice travelled through me as he chuckled and started to talk to Rin.

"I found him like this this morning," he explained, "He only seems to only be a one year old physically and still has all the reflexes of a one year old, but mentally he is Naruto – if a little shyer than normal." I looked up briefly to glare at him before returning my head to its previous position.

"Can you think of any thing that may indicate why this has happened?" Rin asked.

"Well, apart from yesterday – and you checked him over – no, I can't." Yondaime told her.

"Ok, let me check him over," she said. My dad handed me over to her and I felt a wave of panic wash over me. What was wrong with me, I'd spent sixteen years without a father, and after half a day, I can't bear to be just metres away from him?

I stretched my hands out to Yondaime who reached over and stroked my hair.

"Naruto, it's just Rin. You know Rin," he told me. That was just it, I didn't know Rin. Sure, the me in this world seemed to, but I didn't. She was nothing more than a face and a name to me in my world. That was all.

But because I couldn't blow my cover, I'd have to pretend, so I forced down the panic and focused on keeping calm as Rin took me through to the living room and took my shirt off, doing that thing medics do. Y'know, where they poke and prod at you for a few minutes, enough to leave bruises all over your body, but it does nothing to help in their diagnosis.

Eventually, she came to – what she believed to be – a good enough conclusions, but she took my dad into another room where I couldn't hear what she was saying.

As we waited, Kakashi and Obito sat either side of me. Obito picked me up and started moving me through the air making whooshing noises. God does he not listen to anything the Yondaime says. Obviously not else he would have heard the _still mentally sixteen _part.

* * *

_Yondaime_

I followed Rin through to the kitchen so she could tell me what she'd found. After pushing herself up onto the worktop, she explained what she knew.

"Well, there doesn't seem to be any sign of a jutsu, this seems to have happened naturally. Why, I have no idea. I can't tell you when this will wear off, it could be a few days, he may have to grow up all over again. I don't know." I nodded and thanked Rin for checking him out. I was relieved this didn't seem to be a jutsu; at least I was still able to protect him, though the layer of mystery left me unnerved.

I went back into the living room to get Naruto and followed my old students to the door so I could say goodbye. As Rin was leaving, she added, "Remember, he's changed mentally since he was a baby, don't expect him to be the same as he was back then." I nodded and waved goodbye as all three disappeared in a puff of smoke and a swirl of leaves.

I smiled down at Naruto and bounced him up and down a couple of times. He reached up and grabbed one of my bangs in his chubby little toddler hands.

"What shall we do now then," I asked. Before we could decide, there was another knock at the door.

* * *

_Naruto_

I almost jumped out of my dads arms when I saw who was at the door. I barely managed to restrain myself when I saw Itachi standing there right in front of me. I was about to launch myself at him when I saw the little boy with his head buried into his collarbone.

That chicken butt hair was very familiar.

"Sasuke," I said. The little boy looked up and eyed me suspiciously. The way he looked at me, I knew this was my Sasuke from my world.

I held my arms out to him, wanting so bad to touch him and to hug my best friend. Something I'd never had the privilege to do in my world, because technically, he was still on probation and wouldn't go anywhere near me.

Yondaime laughed again and handed me over to Itachi, who took me in his other arm and let me sit, balanced on his other hip. I reached over and ran my hand over his cheek. I felt tears fill my eyes and a single one spilt over as I blinked.

My dad looked at me and moved to wipe the tear from my cheek, but instead it was Sasuke. His chubby toddler hand a little rough on my face, but gentle all the same.

Itachi carried us – following my dad – into the front room. He then set us down on the floor and I turned to Sasuke. Once they were out of immediate earshot and engrossed in there own conversation, I spoke.

"Sasuke, is it you?" I asked, "Are you really my Sasuke?"

"Your Sasuke, you mean you came from the other Konoha?"

I nodded. "I think. Tsunade was the Godaime Hokage, rather than the Yondaime – who is apparently my father."

Sasuke nodded. "So why are we here?" I shrugged. "Its not a gen-jutsu, I already checked."

"Maybe it's a second chance. _Our_ second chance, to have a happy life." I was only joking. Grabbing at any idea. I expected Sasuke to tell me not to be such a dobe and come up with a real answer, but instead, he just shrugged and looked thoughtful fro a while.

* * *

_Yondaime_

I sat down with Itachi on my sofa. After looking towards my son and Sasuke, I saw that they were both deep in conversation and turned back to the Uchiha prodigy.

"So, what happened?" I asked, waiting for his side of the story.

"Well," Itachi started, "Sasuke and I were training, when he passed out. When he woke up, he tried to attack me, saying he was going to get his revenge and passed out again. When he woke up, he was like this. I've checked him with my Sharingan, there is no jutsu surrounding him."

"No, Rin said the same about Naruto," I mumbled. I thought for a moment, coming up with a game plan. "Ok, here's what we'll do. We'll say that Sasuke and Naruto are on a mission together: long term, about a year. If this thing hasn't undone itself since then, we'll just say they have been reported dead.

"Right now, we need to find cover stories. I'll say Naruto was the son of my late half-sister – that I had never met – and that he was named after my father and that it's just coincidence that he has the same name as my own son, since Naruto was also named after my father. Do you have any plan for Sasuke?"

Itachi thought for a while before answering. "I'll tell everyone that Sasuke was the result of a mission. I'd told the woman about my brother, who she named her son after. She has found herself unable to care for him anymore due to illness, wrote to me and I agreed to bring him here. In two months, I'll receive the news of her death." I nodded at Itachi's cover story.

"You know, this could be looked at as a blessing," Itachi said. I gave him a questioning look and he continued. "Well, after Naruto was born, you spent a lot of time mourning for Kushina-san, not really giving Naruto your full attention," I felt a stab of guilt at these words, "And my father ruined Sasuke's childhood, but he's dead now. It's our second chance."

I thought about this for a moment. "Yes," I agreed, "I suppose it is."


	3. Chapter 3

_Oh my God. I am so sorry for taking so long to update. I was planning on doing this like mid-January because I had loads of ideas, but it fell right in the middle of the mock exam period and I had absolutely no time to write, when I finally did, I'd forgotten all of my brilliant ideas, so this is what was left and it took my bloody ages. Thank you to all of my awesome reviews and I'm glad you like this so far (I'm not sure how far it will go) and thank you to Ravencaller, my awesome BETA, who did this after getting a rather frantic call from me last night. _

_So here it is,_

_Industri. _

Chapter 3: A Life Unlived.

_Yondaime_

Itachi and I spoke for a little while longer and watched Naruto and Sasuke talk on the floor with each other. I summoned the same frog from earlier and gave him a new order, telling him to bring Kakashi and Iruka – Kakashi's boyfriend and Naruto's academy sensei – to the house. I had a few errands to run and I had a feeling I'd need their help. I said goodbye to Itachi and Sasuke, and as they were leaving, Kakashi and Iruka arrived at my door.

"Kakashi, Iruka – hello," I greeted them. Iruka smiled politely while Kakashi just lifted his hand in a lazy wave. "I take it you have been informed of the situation?" I asked, gesturing to Naruto who stood behind me. Iruka nodded just as Naruto finally realised who was at the door. He tried walking and managed a few steps before falling on his bum. We all laughed and Naruto just opted for reaching up towards Iruka and saying, in the most adorable voice in the world,

"'Ruka-sensei, up." Iruka bent down and lifted him up, balancing him against his right hip. I looked at him for a second before turning back to my student and his boyfriend.

"I need your help with some shopping. I have absolutely none of Naruto's baby stuff and although I can shrink most of his clothes to his size I want to buy him some proper baby clothes," I said. Iruka eagerly agreed, obviously enjoying the attention he was receiving from baby Naruto, while Kakashi simply gave me a bored look – one that said 'why do you this to me?' – and nodded.

We walked into town, as we didn't know what effect teleporting would have on the chibi. We picked up quite a few stares along the way, but thankfully most came from citizens who weren't really bothering to question it. A few of the woman would come over to us and coo over Naruto a bit. Most common, I found, was the pregnant ones or women carrying small children with them.

When we stepped into the baby shop, we received lots of amused stares. Apparently it was uncommon to see shinobi in this shop, much less male ones. We browsed around the shop for a while, just looking at the sheer amount of stuff that could be bought for babies.

Not wanting to spend too much money on this in case this… whatever it was… actually reversed itself, I decided on just getting the basics I'd need, like the cot and bedding, a high chair, clothing and carrier of some description. Iruka managed to find a crib pad with little tiny shuriken on them with matching sheets and a boppy pillow. It was at this point my not-too-much-money plan went down the drain. When Kushina had been pregnant with Naruto, she'd actually had to physically restrain me from going crazy buying things for my unborn son. Now, I had no one to stop me. I did actually start with the necessities, like the stuff in my mental list. But the moment I got to clothes, I went absolutely insane.

The sales assistant told me to use their test clothes on him to find out what size he was, as I had no idea. It would help me find out how old he was as well.

I handed Naruto to the shop assistant so she could measure him up. He squirmed about in her hold, refusing to keep still. She only smiled – apparently this was quite common for her – and picked up a stuffed toy, waving it above his face. He only continued to fidget. When he turned to look at me, I gave him a stern look. He immediately stilled and looked up at the toy in feigned interest. The sales assistant smiled and started measuring him. When she was finished, she pulled a plain white babygro from under the counter and slipped it on over his clothes.

"Well," she said looking up at me, "He's measuring about nine months, so that would be the size to look for. Obviously, you may want to go a bit bigger, as he's gonna grow and sizes in different styles can vary." I nodded and thanked her, taking Naruto off the counter and heading over to the clothes section.

"Well, Naruto, looks like you're nine months old. Isn't that nice to know?" I said, mostly to myself, but Iruka and Kakashi were standing next to me and I think Naruto was interested in knowing. I sent Iruka and Kakashi away to find the final things on my necessities list and gave them a load of cash to pay for them with, then went about picking out clothes for Naruto.

By the time I was finished, Iruka and Kakashi had taken back all my big stuff to the house, and I had bought enough clothing to last Naruto the next year and would cover everything from formal events to sleeping to everyday wear. Then again, when you're the Hokage's son you need all of this.

I placed a shrinking jutsu on the bags and slipped them into my pockets, leaving my arms free to hold Naruto, who was starting to get bored and would not keep still. When I got back into the house, I went into the kitchen, where I found Kakashi and Iruka. Both were sat at the kitchen table, drinking coffee. Upon closer inspection, I found they were drinking my _best_ coffee. I was fully prepared to kill them, but I needed Kakashi's help, so I would have to refrain from doing so right now.

I handed Naruto to Iruka and kindly asked him to feed him with the baby food we'd bought earlier while I dragged Kakashi upstairs to help me assemble the furniture. When we'd put the changing table and cot together and filled it with clothes and whatnot, we headed back downstairs to Iruka.

I couldn't help but laugh when I saw him. His whole face was covered in the green goop he had been recently trying to feed Naruto. My son, however, seemed to be squeaky clean. I smiled and went over to the sink, picking up the cloth sitting on the sideboard and handed it to Iruka.

"Bathroom's down the hall next to the sitting room," I said. "Sorry Iruka, take as long as you need." He thanked me and headed in the direction of one of my five bathrooms.

I looked down at Naruto, who looked up at me innocently. "Was that really necessary, Naruto?" I asked. He only continued to look up at me, a massive grin plastered on his face. "Come on Naruto, he was only trying to help me out. It wasn't like he was causing you an inconvenience, you were gonna have to eat sooner or later."

"I know, but have you tasted that stuff? It's disgusting," Naruto told me, pulling a face. Right now, I doubted he'd tried it either, as Iruka seemed to be wearing the entire jar. I felt sorry for him; when Naruto had been a baby the first time I'd been on the receiving end of food throwing many a time. I laughed a little at the memory, heading over to the fridge for a last ditch attempt to give him something to eat.

I took the fruit over to the kitchen counter and cut it in half, removing the stone in the centre and replacing one of the two pieces back in the fridge. Then I pulled a spoon out of a drawer and sat in the chair recently vacated by Iruka, in front of Naruto. I dug the spoon into the fruit and held it towards my son. He resisted a bit, so I reached forwards and pinched his nose closed. Naruto's mouth opened and I put the spoon into it, releasing Naruto's nose as it closed around the spoon.

He chewed for a second, making faces of discomfort and disgust, but swallowed and opened his mouth for more. So he was either hungrier than he had thought, or secretly enjoyed it. I suspected it was the latter.

After I had finished feeding Naruto, I lifted him out of his high chair and put him down on the floor. I went over to the cupboard and pulled out one of the trainer cups we'd bought. At this point, I was beginning to wonder how much our shopping trip had dented my bank account today.

I took a carton of apple juice out of the fridge and poured some into the cup, then topped it up with water. I then picked Naruto up and gave him the cup, taking him with me up to my study. I had a ton of paper work to get through before the end of the day. I would have probably already finished it if this whole dilemma hadn't come up. I set Naruto down on the floor with a few toys and sat down behind my desk, pulling out the first of about one hundred forms.

About five hours later, I was finally finished. I looked down to the floor where Naruto was sat. He was currently going through the process of trying to pull himself up using the armchair against the wall. He had been doing this for the last two hours when he could no longer entertain himself any longer. Naruto gripped onto the cushions once again and pulled himself up. I watched as he made sure it was properly balanced before letting go. He wobbled for a few seconds, before finally falling backwards onto his bum. Ten seconds: a new record.

I looked up at the clock. It was getting rather late. I saw Naruto reach up a hand and rub his eyes. He'd tired himself out already. I climbed out of my chair and went over to him, picking Naruto up and heading towards the bathroom. I set the tap running and laid Naruto down on the changing mat on the work surface by the sink.

"No," he said when I started to unbutton his clothes. "There is no way you are going to bath me. I am perfectly capable of doing it myself." I sighed.

"Okay Naruto, this is the last time I am going to tell you this," I told him, the next words coming out slowly. "You are not sixteen. Not physically. A nine-month-old cannot wash himself. You will drown." Alright, he probably wouldn't drown – I had put one of those non-slip mats in the tub after all – but it got my message across.

Naruto stopped protesting and let me undress him. I turned off the taps and lifted my pouting son off the worktop and sat him down in the water. I managed to wash his hair with relative ease, since he was pretty much ignoring me, but when I went to wash the rest of him, his mischievous streak seemed to return.

I knew what he was going to the moment that look flickered through his eyes, yet I didn't think to duck as Naruto picked up the cup I'd been using to tip water on him. I knew that if I were to catch it, I'd have to let go of Naruto, which I knew I shouldn't do. So I simply let the cup bounce off of my head and back into the tub, where it landed with a small splash. Naruto looked up at me and laughed. A proper baby laugh that sounded like a gurgle. My heart instantly softened.

"Come on, Naruto," I said gently. "Let me finish washing you and you can get out."

Naruto once again let me wash him before I lifted him out of the water. He shivered as the cool air hit his wet skin. I wrapped Naruto up in a large fluffy orange towel, and hugged him close to my body while I carried him through to his bedroom. Naruto looked around the room, obviously confused.

"This isn't my bedroom," he stated.

"You slept in here until you were five," I explained. "My bedroom's next door, so Kakashi and I set your nursery up in here."

I went over to Naruto's changing unit and picked a babygro from the underneath storage area, then lay Naruto down on the mat and started drying him off. He squirmed about as I rubbed the towel over his skin. Then I pulled out a nappy from the bag on the floor.

"You do know what a nappy is for, right Naruto?" I asked as I went about putting it on. He only looked up at me in confusion. "Use it to go to the toilet. I will not hold you over the toilet seat whenever you want to go, and you'll probably fall in if you try to do it on your own." Naruto' look of confusion turned to one of disgust.

"No – just no," he said. "I draw the line at that."

"Naruto, your body won't cope; you'll make yourself ill. Just do it, tell me and I'll change you. You did it when you were a baby and you can do it now."

Once I'd dressed Naruto, I lifted him off the changing table and took him into the room next door through the adjoining door. I sat Naruto down on my bed against the pillows while I stripped out of my clothes and pulled on a pair of pyjama pants. Then I lifted Naruto back into my arms and went downstairs, putting some water into the kettle.

Once again, Naruto reached up to rub his eyes, but he seemed to refuse to succumb to the tiredness. I poured the boiled water into one of Naruto's bottles, adding a couple of scoopfuls of formula powder.

Then I took Naruto and the bottle through to the front room and sat down in one of the armchairs. Cradling Naruto with my right arm, I slipped the teat of the bottle into his mouth. To begin with, his hands clasped at the bottle tightly, but the more he drank, the more tired he became. He was asleep before the bottle was empty.

I stood up, set the quarter full bottle on the floor and carried Naruto back up to his bedroom. I laid him down gently in his cot and tucked him in with the fox blanket Iruka had brought for him.

Finally, I bent over and placed a light kiss on his forehead and ran my hand through his thick blonde hair. My son. My beautiful son.

"Goodnight, Naruto," I whispered.


	4. Chapter 4

_Hello again everyone. _

_Thank you once again for being so patient, but I am once again in the throws of revision for my GCSEs, but that period is now coming to an end and I will soon be able to update quicker than I usually do – hopefully. _

_Enjoy,_

_Industri_

Chapter 4

_Naruto_

_I sat up and looked around. I was surrounded by… well, nothing. Everything around me was white. Empty. _

_I squeezed my eyes shut as a bright light filled the room. When I opened them again, I gasped at the sight in front of me. In front of me was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She had long black hair that fell in gentle waves down over her shoulders, contrasting with her pale skin. I looked to her obsidian black eyes and felt myself becoming lost. _

"_Naruto," she said. Her voice felt like someone was dragging a length of silk over my skin. A shiver travelled up and down my spine._

"_H-how do you know my name?" I asked. _

"_A Goddess knows the names of all her subjects, Naruto." A goddess… this woman was a goddess. "What you told Sasuke today was true. You have both endured many hardships in your lives, so you've been given a second chance." _

_I was right. This was no jutsu, or a trick. I had really, finally, been given my chance to have a family. And so had Sasuke. Both of us, able to be friends. I wasn't alone and he didn't have to focus on getting his revenge. Finally, we got what everyone else had had for the rest of their lives._

_The light intensified and the woman started to fade away. I reached a hand out in front of me. _

"_No, don't go," I begged. "Please don't leave me." The goddess laughed. A high tinkling laugh._

"_You don't need me, Naruto," she said. "You have your family now." And with those final words, she disappeared. _

I sat up in my cot and looked around. My heart was pounding hard against my ribcage. I had no idea what to do, so I gave into instinct and did the first thing that came to mind: I cried. It felt good to an extent, but I still felt empty inside.

I opened my eyes as I was lifted out of my cot and, very briefly, cried a little louder until I saw it was my dad who had lifted me up. He held me close to his chest and some of the emptiness disappeared. Yondaime went over to the chair in the corner of the room and sat down, sitting me on his lap.

I continued to cry as he rubbed his hand up and down my back and through my hair. I reached my arms out, trying to wrap them around his neck. He shifted me so I was resting against his chest and I wound my arms around his neck, pulling my body close to his and pressing my face into his shoulder.

"It's OK, Naruto, calm down son, everything's OK," he said gently into my ear, calming my cries a little.

Eventually, I stopped crying and just sat there – still holding onto my dad, hiccupping every few seconds.

"You OK now?" Yondaime asked. I nodded, reaching up a hand and scrubbing at my eyes. "What happened?"

"Nothing, just a bad dream," I told him, trying to act calm about it. Truly, I didn't even know why I'd been crying.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked. I shook my head. "OK son, so long as you're all right." He stood up and headed back over towards the cot. When he tried to lay me back down on the mattress, I held on tighter to him.

"Please don't leave me," I said. I was expecting him to tell me no, but instead, he stood up straight again and headed over to the door that led through to his bedroom and went over to the bed. He sat down on it and lay back into the mattress, balancing me on his chest and pulling the covers up over the two of us.

"Love you Dad," I mumbled, snuggling into his warm body. Yondaime's hand came up to rest on my back, holding me in place so I didn't roll off.

"Love you too, Naruto," he replied, and I fell into sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, the bed was empty apart from me. I was on my back, covered with a thin cotton blanket and lying on top of the rest of the covers, as the bed had been remade since last night. I wondered how I hadn't woken up whilst they'd been doing that.

I sat up and pushed the blanket off myself, looking behind me to the clock on my dad's bedside table. It was just gone nine o'clock. How had I managed to sleep that late? I was never up any later than eight normally.

Next to the clock was a baby monitor. I pushed myself onto my hands and knees and crawled over to it, leaning over so my face was close to the microphone.

"DAAAD," I yelled into it, then continued speaking normally, "I'm awake and stuck. Please come and get me." I looked around when I heard a popping noise to see my father standing there, a few stray leaves swirling around his ankles.

"Good morning, Naruto," he said. He came over to me, lifted me off the bed and carrying me back into my bedroom through the adjoining door. "We need to get you ready; you're spending the day with Sasuke. Itachi's looking after you."

He lay me down on my changing table and disappeared from view for a bit. I sat up and watched as he started searching through my drawers and reappeared holding one of the weirdest items of clothing I'd over seen. It was a one piece in the same colour as the chuunin and jounin flak vests – though I think it was made of a softer material to make it softer against the skin – and had pockets of the same style on the front. There was also a pair of shorts to match the jounin pants, that had a little shuriken style holster that clipped onto it with little popper buttons.

"What do you think, Naru-chan?" he said, a massive grin spreading across his face.

"Okay, please never call me Naru-chan again," I told him. "And that clothing is a little stupid. It actually looks rather weird and I can honestly say that if you try to dress me in it, I will bite you." Yondaime's smiled only grew as he picked up a couple of items off the table next to me.

"I'll have you know, _Naru-chan_, that these outfits are very popular among Shinobi parents, and that you'll look very cute in it. Also, look how handy these are." He held out the items he'd picked up off the table. One was a dummy, another a little toy and plastic thing in the shape of a shuriken. "Now for some instructions. Don't suck your thumb, use the dummy." He held out the plastic shuriken. "You're teething, so you're gonna end up chewing on any available item; use this instead. It's a teething ring."

Yondaime pulled the little holster off the shorts and stuck the items into it, then reattached the holster again.

"See," he said. "This outfit is so handy." He continued smiling as he came over to me and lay me back down again, removing my pyjamas and nappy – I still refused to use it, even though I was desperate for the toilet right now.

"Dad, before you put the nappy back on, I really need the loo," I said.

"I already told you Naruto, you need to use the nappy and I will take you into the bathroom this time, but won't again," he said, lifting me up and carrying me through to the bathroom, holding me over the toilet seat whilst I went. Then, he took me back into the bedroom and finished dressing me. I will admit – though only to myself – that it was rather comfortable.

After a quick breakfast, my dad packed my bag put my into the baby carrier – attached to his front – and started the journey to the Uchiha compound.

Itachi was waiting for us at the gates, holding Sasuke in his arms. He smiled at us and waved when he caught sight of us, walking over to meet us.

As we walked through the compound, Yondaime and Itachi chatted with each other. Sasuke and I had to remain silent, other than making baby-like noises. When we reached the main house, Yondaime took me over to a blanket already laid out on the floor and sat me down. Itachi put Sasuke down next to me. Then, they went over to the other side of the room to talk.

_Yondaime_

After going through the same instructions I'd given Naruto with Itachi and adding some more.

"Okay, don't let Naruto near any fires – I know you like them in this clan but Naruto seems to have some weird kind of obsession with them and it never seems to end well. Also, don't let him eat any chunks of cheese, he always ends up choking on them and—"

"Yondaime-sama, it's OK, I know what I'm doing. I have my own seven-month-old to deal with too, it's okay," Itachi said, cutting of my speech. I grinned, a little embarrassed that I'd gone off on one, and lifted my hand to rub the back of my head.

"Right... Thanks again Itachi, for looking after Naruto, I really owe you," I said, heading over to Naruto. "I'll see you later on, son. Be good for Itachi," I told him, pressing a kiss into his forehead.

"Yep, sure Dad," he said, sticking a thumb in his mouth. I opened up the pouch and pulled out his dummy, sticking it in his mouth.

"Don't suck your thumb," I said with a laugh, then turned around to leave. Right; off to see my sensei and predecessor. I wondered how they were going to take this.


	5. Chapter 5

_I'm not even going to bother making any excuses as to why this has taken so long. Seriously, it is just the posting I'm behind on; I have loads of chapters written and ready to put up. By the way, if I do give up on this, which I have no intention to, I will tell you, not just leave the story hanging, because I find that really annoying. _

_Enjoy, Industri_

Chapter 5

I stepped into my office and looked at the two men in there. One was sitting at my desk – his old desk – and the other was leant against the edge of said desk, looking at me as I walked through the door.

"So, brat, what's got you so desperate for this little meeting?" he asked. I glared at him.

"Don't call me brat. I'm Hokage, so show some respect," I said. Jiraiya-sensei looked at me and laughed.

"Don't forget _Hokage-sama_, I've seen you at your worst. Remember when you found out Kushina was in labour…?"

I had a brief flashback of running out of Hokage tower and to the hospital, but running into a pole on the way there. The villagers weren't too impressed by that one, seeing their leader being outsmarted by a piece of wood. Saying that, though, neither had Kushina-chan. I shook myself out of my memories as Sandaime started to speak.

"Let's get down to business. Minato, why did you call us here?" I started my story, telling them what had happened to Naruto, and Sasuke, for what I hoped to be the last time. When I was done, Sandaime was looking ahead of himself, a thoughtful expression on his face. I turned to my sensei, whose mouth had dropped open so far I was pretty sure I could see the back of his throat.

"I…He…What…?" he stuttered. "I already dealt with the kid once, why do I have to do it again?" I had to laugh.

"Well, it's not like he's a proper baby, just physically," I explained. "It's weird though, he seems so much different from how he used to be."

"Well, that is understandable, Minato," Sandaime said, speaking for the first time since I'd started telling them the story. "He has lived for sixteen years since he was last this age, he's experienced different things, I wouldn't have expected him to be exactly the same." I nodded. He was making sense, but after that day – the one where it had all changed – it was like I had a different Naruto. This one seemed so much more self dependant and some of the reactions he'd had with other people, it was odd. "Now, I suggest you go to your son and enjoy the remainder of your week off with him. Everything is being taken care of here." I smiled and waved goodbye to the two men and made a hand sign. A second later, I found myself standing outside the Uchiha main house.

_Naruto_

I looked at Sasuke just as my father was leaving the house and he looked back at me, his eyes scanning over my outfit. I swear I saw the corners of his lips twitch as if he were about to smile. For a moment or two, we were just sat there in silence. I examined his pale skin and super-dark hair and eyes, my mind flickered back to the dream from last night.

"You know Sasuke, I had this dream last night," I said and launched into a full description of the dream. Sasuke sat there and listened, though he didn't give any of his thoughts away. Even as a baby, he was the perfect ninja. When I was finished, he scoffed.

"Dobe, you can't listen to a dream," he said. "It was probably influenced by our conversation yesterday."

"Don't call me dobe, teme," I said. "And it felt so real, it's the only explanation we have." Sasuke looked at me and his expression softened just a bit.

"I know, I had the same dream," he whispered. I glared at him for letting me believe I was just being stupid. "We need to make sure we don't give anything away. We are, no doubt, different in this world and those are the people we need to be." I nodded. It was true. Sasuke would definitely be different as it was the death of his family that made him that way. I still remember him from school. The two of us were actually good friends; sometimes I wonder whether he actually remembers that time.

There were a few more minutes of silence before either of us spoke again. "Wanna have some fun?" Sasuke asked, a mischievous glint that I'd never seen before appearing in his eye. I nodded, and the two of us crawled through to the kitchen where Itachi was sat at the table, clearly writing a report. Sasuke crawled over to him.

"Itachi, we're hungry. Can we have some tomato?" he asked. Itachi sighed and went over to the fridge, opening it up. Sasuke sent me a look that I'd seen many a time when on missions: cause a distraction. I started to cry.

Itachi quickly turned around and lifted me off the floor, balancing me on his hip and bouncing me up and down in attempt to calm me down. To be honest, his attempts didn't work too well and actually only served to make me a little nauseous. After a couple of minutes, I quietened down, pretending to be OK again.

Itachi put me back on the floor and finished preparing Sasuke's tomato. I crawled back into the living room, where I found Sasuke clutching a bottle of sake in his hands. Oh yes, this was going to be fun. This was going to be very fun. I reached into my bag and pulled out my training cup, which was currently empty.

Opening the bottle, Sasuke emptied the contents into the cup and I secured the lid. As Itachi came into the room, I stuck the cup back into my bag, so as not to raise suspicion. He set a little plate with carefully sliced tomato on it in front of us and Sasuke started happily chewing on it. Itachi disappeared back into the kitchen to finish his work.

I picked out my cup and took a long sip of the sake, then handing it to Sasuke for him to have some. This was going to be an interesting day.

_Yondaime_

I raised my hand and knocked on the door. A few seconds later, it swung open, revealing a dishevelled-looking Itachi. I wondered to myself what seemed to have gotten the usually stone-cool Uchiha in this state.

"Good afternoon, Yondaime-sama. You're back early," he said. Surprisingly, I could hear the smallest hint of panic in his voice. Why did I get the feeling this had something to do with my son?

"Yes, Itachi, it seemed to take less time than I had planned," I answered, then sent him a concerned glance. "Is everything OK?" Itachi's panicked look intensified – though only a little.

"Of course, Yondaime-sama, why would you ask that?" he asked, trying to school his features into a more controlled expression. He was going to try and hide this from me. Oh, Itachi, you may be the best ninja of your generation, but you can't hide anything from me. Everything comes out to the Hokage in the end.

"I'll go get my son, then," I said. Itachi froze – so it did have something to do with Naruto. Eventually, he resigned himself to the fact that he had to let me in and stepped aside. I went into the house, going to the living room where I had left my son a couple of hours ago, and was met with an odd sight.

At first, nothing seemed really off. The boys were just sat there laughing and there was nothing strange about that. Then, I noticed the way they didn't stop laughing and were actually staring at nothing in particular at all. In fact, both were looking in different directions, but at blank pieces of wall. I also noticed the way Naruto seemed to be wobbling, even though he was sat perfectly still.

I turned to Itachi, who instantly went very pale.

"Itachi, what is wrong with my son?" I asked, keeping my voice neutral. Itachi, hearing the calm in my voice, blanched, knowing it was only the calm before the storm.

"Well, it would appear, Hokage-sama, that they were… drunk," Itachi replied. Yes, that much I had surmised.

"And how did they get _drunk_?" I asked, still keeping my calm tone.

"I don't know," Itachi answered after a few minutes silence. I ignored him and bent down in front of Naruto, directing his gaze so it was focused on me.

"Naruto, how did you and Sasuke get the alcohol?" I asked. Naruto answered, but through his giggles I could only catch a few words: Sasuke… Itachi… and… _tomato_?

"When I was getting Sasuke's tomato and Naruto started crying… Sasuke must have sneaked a bottle of sake from the fridge," Itachi said after a few seconds, apparently having figured it out.

"How the hell did they get hold of it?" I asked as I spun around. It may not have been Itachi's fault, but there was definitely something that needed to be changed here.

"We keep the sake on the bottom shelf of the fridge," Itachi told me.

"You don't keep alcohol on the bottom shelf when you have toddlers," I said, my voice high with shock at what was happening. "Especially when you have this one—" I pointed to the still giggling Naruto "—visiting. C'mon, you're a top ranking ninja, Itachi, how did you miss it?"

Itachi started spluttering out an excuse as I put the baby carrier back on and slipped Naruto into it. Finally, I slung Naruto's changing bag over my shoulders.

"I'll see you soon, Itachi," was all I said as I left. As soon as I was out of the Uchiha compound, I took to the rooftops, trying to keep the ride as steady as possible as I had no idea what the alcohol was doing to my son's stomach. Once I was back home, I took Naruto straight to the kitchen and sat him in his highchair. Then, I set about searching through the cupboards. Eventually, I came out with a vial containing a bright green liquid, which I mixed with some water in one of Naruto's bottles.

I was able to get him to drink it with ease. The solution was one ninja were supplied with for missions in the situation they may need to sober up quite quickly. Once I had got Naruto to drink the mixture, I lifted him out of his highchair and carried him through to the living room. As it was diluted, it would take a couple of minutes to take affect.

"Mmm, I love you Dad," he mumbled into my shoulder. "Glad I came here, never had this before." I was puzzled at the words coming from my son, but had to push them to the back of my mind as some clarity seemed to return to his eyes and the solution began to take affect.

_Naruto_

I let my dad's warmth surround me. I suddenly felt very glad I'd been given this second chance to live with him. To have everything I'd always wanted. To be protected.

My mind felt fuzzy and unclear, but I could feel the fog slowly dissipating. I was pulled away from my dad and set down on the sofa. As my vision cleared, I looked up to the Yondaime. There was a look of anger in his features.

Oh shit.


	6. Chapter 6

Hey guys. There are going to be errors in this, because the BETA'd version is in the PAGES format, and I can' open it to change. Will re-upload it at a later date.

Enjoy, Industri

xx

* * *

Chapter 6

_Naruto_

"So Naruto," my dad said, his voice calm. The sort of controlled calm that meant it was only a small while before he blew. I didn't need to know him well to recognise that sort of tone; I had been faced with it many times through my ninja career from friends, teachers... actually pretty much most people. "Care to explain why I came to the Uchiha's this afternoon and found you drunk?" I giggled nervously.

"Would you believe me if I told you that it was Sasuke's idea?" My dad gave me a look that said he clearly wouldn't – which wasn't fair as it _was _Sasuke's idea. "It was a collective effort." I mumbled. I could see Yondaime's jugular popping threateningly on the right side of his neck.

"Naruto, how could you be so stupid?" he yelled. I flinched back, having not heard him like this before. "If you'd drunk too much, your liver or kidneys could have started to fail; your body is only small it wouldn't be able to handle what an adult can before it started to go wrong. I only left you for an hour. Why couldn't you have just been sensible?"

* * *

_Yondaime_

I'm not sure how long I was yelling at Naruto. But I do know that I had gone around in a circle with my words about three times and was now on my fourth time around. I hadn't even looked at Naruto since the second time and when I did, I saw he wasn't looking at me either. He actually had his knees pulled up to his chest and was looking down at them. He was also shaking. Was my son scared of me? He'd been told off and yelled at many a time by me and others so it shouldn't be any different. Maybe what I'd said to Sandaime earlier was a bit more than coincidence. Naruto was different.

I stopped what I was doing and sat down, lifting Naruto up off the sofa and sitting him on my lap. He didn't look at me, but the shaking increased, though only slightly.

"Naruto..." I started.

"I'm sorry Dad. So, so sorry and I know I shouldn't have done it!" Naruto interrupted before I could say any more. I could hear the clear panic in his voice and couldn't hold back the flinch.

"I know son," I said. "There's something you're keeping from me. I know there is. Earlier, you said you were glad you came here. What does that mean." Naruto visibly flinched, but didn't say anything. I waited patiently for about five minutes. Just as I was about to give up, he spoke.

"This isn't my Konoha," Naruto said, very hesitantly.

"What do you mean?" I asked, my confusion evident in my voice. As far as I knew, there was only one Konoha, how could he have come from another.

"In my Konoha, I'm an orphan. You died sealing Kyuubi no Kitsune. He was attacking the village and you couldn't kill him. But you could seal him into a newborn – that was me. In exchange, the Shinigami had to take your soul," he stopped here. My mind was going at 100 mph. No, I wouldn't have done that; I wouldn't have left my son to fend for himself. "I was in an orphanage until I was five, but they kicked me out because I was too much of a risk to the other children, so the Sandaime provided me with a flat to live in." I felt a surge of anger rush through me. How dare they throw him out? "When I graduated from the Academy, I was put in a team with Sasuke and Sakura, Kakashi was our sensei. Sasuke's whole family was killed by Itachi – I still don't know the details, so I can't explain that – but he left after the chuunin exams to be with Orochimaru who offered him the strength he needed to kill Itachi." I couldn't imagine this at all. I knew there was nothing more important to Itachi than his family. "After the Sandaime was killed battling Orochimaru, Tsunade took over as Hokage and Jiraiya took me away to train for two years. Basically, when I was training when I arrived back in Konoha, the jutsu caused an explosion and I woke up here. Last night, I woke up from a dream where a goddess came to me and told me this was second chance to be with you. Same for Sasuke as well; he came from my Konoha as well."

I sat there in silence long after Naruto had finished, just trying to absorb everything Naruto had just told me. He'd come from a Konoha that was a completely different world from ours. All because the gods had decided to give him a chance to have the family he'd never had. Without thinking, I stood up and headed down the hall to my study. I sat down in my chair and picked up the picture of Kushina sitting on the desk.

"That's a lot of information to take in," I said, reaching out and running my finger across her cheek bone. In my mind, I could still feel her soft, warm skin under my finger tips and smell the scent of grass that always seemed to cling to her due to the infinite amount of hours she always spent outside. It was comforting. "But he's still Naruto, my son, and he deserves a family more than anyone else in this world."

I stood up and went back into the living room to go and get Naruto. When I got in there and looked at the sofa where he had previously been sitting only to find it empty. I felt every sense heighten as I had that rush of adrenaline along with the overwhelming panic that seemingly always accompanied it. I ran out of the front room and around the whole of the lower floor. Then, I remembered something. I'd attached one of my special seals to the ring on Naruto's dummy which should hopefully still be with him. I flashed through some hand signs and felt that pulling sensation as the seal activated and I was taken to Naruto.

When I stopped, I saw that I was in the nursery and Naruto was sat in the corner of the room. I ran over to him and quickly scooped him up, holding him close to my body.

"Oh, Naruto. Thank God, I thought you had been taken and I hadn't noticed any intruders. Don't you ever disappear like that again," I said. Naruto was completely relaxed in my arms but tensed up as the last few words left my mouth.

"I thought you wouldn't want me anymore," he said. I felt my eyes sting at his words. "I'm not your son."

"Your name is Naruto Namikaze, correct?" I asked. Naruto shook his head. "Uzumaki?" I tried again. He nodded this time. "Then you are my son, always will be. It doesn't matter where you come from, you are always my boy." Naruto's arms found their way around my neck and held on tightly.

I carried him downstairs and deposited him in his high chair while I tried to find something for him to eat. In the fridge was some Miso that I usually used to make ramen with. I knew it was something Naruto would probably eat and he couldn't object as it wasn't actually baby food. I put it into a bowl and warmed it up a little with a jutsu, before picking up a spoon and starting to feed Naruto.

Once again, he didn't put up any objection. I think the real issue was that we were trying to feed him baby food, which he found insulting – and, rightfully, disgusting. I would just have to find other foods that would be suitable for him to eat but was actually 'adult' food.

Once we were done with eating, I took him through to the living room and we curled up onto the sofa together. I could tell the after affects of the sake were still with Naruto and he was getting tired, so I took advantage of his lethargic state and took him upstairs to wash him – which was accomplished with little resistance – and fed him a warm bottle in the nursery before putting him to bed.

I hoped he was going to sleep comfortably through the night this time – no weird dreams to wake him – and, even though it was still quite early evening, wouldn't wake until a decent hour tomorrow.

Then, I went downstairs and back into my study. I sat back down behind my desk and picked up my photo of Kushina again.

"Kushina-chan, I miss you so much," I said as I looked into her brilliant green eyes. I couldn't stop the tears from filling my own. "If what Naruto says is completely accurate, I have to do this all over again – not that I don't want to, he's my son and I love him more than anything in the world – but there were times when I really needed you. And Naruto needed you. But this Naruto, all he needs is for someone to show him the love he was always denied by the looks of it." I sat there in silence for a few minutes before setting the photo back on the desk as I felt a rush of warmth again. "I miss you more and more ever day. You were the best wife there ever could have been and you were going to be an amazing mother. I love you, Kushina-chan."

The tears were flowing rather freely now and I knew the words I had been dreading the last sixteen years were swelling in my throat, waiting to be said. I swallowed and leant forward, kissing the photo gently. "Goodbye love," I whispered. Something inside of me loosened at that moment and I was able to take a deep breath. For sixteen years, I'd held into her, but now she was free and I was able to finally let go.

Nothing would come between Naruto and I this time. Not work or my grief. He would always come first, just like it was always meant to be. This time, I was going to do it right, because Naruto needed me right now.

Standing up, I went round the lower floor, picking up the small mess I'd made in my frantic search for Naruto and sorted through my kitchen in an attempt to find something that he would be willing to eat tomorrow. I sensed another trip to the market coming soon and groaned. What the hell was I going to do with all the baby food I had bought. Maybe I could donate it to the orphanage or find someone with babies that wouldn't mind eating it.

Sighing, I headed upstairs and climbed into bed – the stress of the day and middle of the night interruptions having worn me out almost as much as Naruto.


End file.
